The meltdown of Janet Jackson’s tour continues…

– LL Cool J leaves the tour, due to “unnamed scheduling conflicts”. Now, this could work one of two ways. Either he wasn’t happy with the crowds that Janet HASN’T been bringing in (only 8,000 showed for the concert in Detroit last night), and didn’t feel like it was a constructive use of his time, or maybe Janet’s team didn’t see any add-on value in having LL on the tour, and gave him a way to bow out. After all, his current CD “Exit 13” is actually even more of a bomb than “Discipline”, having only sold 80,000 units since its release. The details get even more clouded when you consider that LL is leaving Island/Def Jam after this release, and Janet recently left IDJ. There could be a LOT of politics going on in the mix here.

– Speaking of the Detroit show, Janet removed a three-song portion of the show because of a Michigan law “prohibiting simulated sex acts in a public performing space”. From the concert team:

Jackson’s manager Kenneth Crear, who was on site, said that “Janet did not want to disappoint her Detroit-area fans again, so we adhered to Michigan’s state ordinance and trimmed the ‘Discipline’ segment of the show so it would not be canceled.”

Janet bringing men up on stage and having her way with them is nothing new…she did it during the “All For You” tour I saw back in 2001, and it’s been her shtick pretty much since “The Velvet Rope”. You don’t necessarily think of Michigan as being that type of place. but then again, this is the same state that Madonna had issues with in “Truth or Dare”, so I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised.
Sorry…that was Toronto. My bad. (Thanks, Michael)

– In a small ray of good news, it is expected that Janet will add more dates to the schedule. Whether that will be in smaller venues, or that there actually is some demand in other parts of the country, she’s got to be happy with that. One more chance to pay for all that freaky hair and costume expense.